An evaluation of the importance of the thermo-hydro-mechanical couplings (THM) on the performance assessment of a deep underground radioactive waste repository has been made as a part of the international DECOVALEX III project. It is a numerical study that simulates a generic repository configuration in the near field in a continuous and homogeneous hard rock. A periodic repository configuration comprises a single vertical borehole, containing a canister surrounded by an over-pack and a bentonite layer, and the backfilled upper portion of the gallery. The thermo-hydro-mechanical evolution of the whole configuration is simulated over a period of 100 years. The importance of the rock mass's intrinsic permeability has been investigated through scoping calculations with three values: 10 -17 , 10 -18 and 10 -19 m 2 . Comparison of the results predicted by fully coupled THM analysis as well as partially coupled TH, TM and HM analyses, in terms of several predefined indicators of importance for performance assessment, enables us to identify the effects of the different combinations of couplings, which play a crucial role with respect to safety issues. The results demonstrate that temperature is hardly affected by the couplings. In contrast, the influence of the couplings on the mechanical stresses is considerable.
In this paper, we consider non-isothermal twophase flow of two components (air and water) in gaseous and liquid phases in extremely low-permeable porous media through the use of the finite element method (FEM). Interphase mass transfer of the components between any of the phases is evaluated by assuming local thermodynamic equilibrium between the phases. Heat transfer occurs by conduction and multiphase advection. General equations of state for phase changes (Clausius-Clapeyron and Henry law) as well as multiphase properties for the low-permeable bentonites are implemented in the code. Additionally we consider the impact of swelling/shrinking processes on porosity and permeability changes. The numerical model is implemented in the context of the simulator RockFlow/RockMech (RF/RM), which is based on object-oriented programming techniques. The finite element formulations are written in terms of dimensionless quantities. This has proved to be advantageous for preconditioning composite system matrices of coupled multi-field problems. Three application examples are presented. The first one examines differences between the Richards' approximation and the multicomponent/multiphase approach, and between two numerical coupling schemes. The second example serves as partial verification against experimental results and to demonstrate coherence between different element types. The last example shows simultaneous desaturation and resaturation in one system.
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